


No dawn, no day

by Emjen_Enla



Series: Prompted Works [18]
Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Skating, Anyway I love this AU, Cross-Posted on Tumblr, F/M, Gen, Insomnia, M/M, Sleep Deprivation, Somewhere Along the Way I've Lost My Ability to Tag, dislike at first sight, ice dance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-13
Updated: 2019-08-13
Packaged: 2020-08-20 19:53:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,451
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20233450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emjen_Enla/pseuds/Emjen_Enla
Summary: Massively overtired Gansey meets his new skating partner, Blue. She doesn't particularly like him. Written for Gansey Week day 2 "Insomnia."





	No dawn, no day

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Cosmic Love" by Florence and the Machine. I know it's a sort of cruddy title, but for complicated reasons I really wanted this titled with "Cosmic Love" lyrics.
> 
> So the fact that this needed to be a tired!Gansey fic was obvious from the start, but I couldn’t get into it as canon compliant and I’ve been in the mood for sports!AUs so that’s what I’m did. 
> 
> In full transparency, I am not a figure skater and I don’t know that much about the sport. I probably should have done a gymnastics AU because I might be able to fake that one. (We’ll all pretend that this isn’t a figure skating AU solely because I thought the idea of Ronan being a figure skater was hilarious.) Please go easy on me.

Gansey was watching the sun rise over the Aglionby complex for the fourth time this week. The lounge of his floor of the dorms had a nice big window perfect for looking out over the rink down below and watching the sun make its steady journey across the sky. It was sort of nice.

Gansey was trying to focus on the positives instead of the dismal fact that he hadn’t slept through the night in a week. Yes, he was exhausted, but he got to see the sunrise every morning. Yes, he was exhausted, but he didn’t have to listen to his alarm blaring when it was time to get up. Yes, he was exhausted, but he now had the inside scoop on all sorts of Aglionby gossip. For example, he knew that Adam Parrish really was working nights to pay for his training, and he knew that Declan Lynch probably really was sleeping with Cheng2’s skating partner, Ashley Whatever-Her-Name-Was, or at the very least that he was sleeping with someone. It was all totally worth the lack of sleep.

Still, he’d hoped to be able to sleep tonight. Today was a big day and he would have liked to be able to think straight to face it. Today was the day when Gansey finally, finally, got a new partner and got to leave men’s singles behind. He’d been anticipating this day since the moment that Helen had announced that she was quitting skating. Of course, it wasn’t like it was hard for a man looking for a skating partner to find one. There were so many more girls in figure skating than boys that some girls basically bought partners by paying all their training and living expenses. The reason Gansey hadn’t immediately gotten a new partner was because Coach Child--the head coach of Aglionby Training Academy--had gotten it into his head that he could make a singles skater out of Gansey. It had taken almost two years, but Child had finally realized that Gansey wasn’t a powerful enough skater to be competitive on an international scale in singles, so he’d relented and agreed that Gansey could get a new partner and go back to ice dance.

It was almost time to get up. Gansey hauled himself to his tired feet and plodded towards the dorm room he shared with Ronan. Ronan had never been much for mornings, but in the months since Niall Lynch had died he’d gotten to the point where he wasn’t always responsible or sober enough to set an alarm. Unsurprisingly, Ronan’s skating had been suffering too which was a problem. Of the three Lynch brothers who trained at Aglionby, Ronan had the most raw talent though Declan scored higher half the time because he was quite literally the most consistent skater Gansey had ever met. The score gap had only been getting larger in the last few months. Gansey was pretty sure Ronan was a big reason that his insomnia had been so bad recently. Ronan had been his best friend since they’d first been assigned a room together, and Gansey was worried.

Ronan groaned and flipped the bird in Gansey’s general direction when Gansey ripped his blankets off the bed. “Get up,” Gansey said. “We have to be on the ice in half an hour.”

“Didn’t you hear me last night? I’m quitting and picking up hockey.” Ronan grumbled, rolling over to face the wall. This made his massive back tattoo perfectly visible. It was so new it was still healing in places. That tattoo and Ronan’s new buzzcut where the reason Coach Child had screamed at Ronan in from of the whole of Aglionby during dinner. Gansey had wanted to sink down into the floor and vanish from second-hand shame, but Ronan had just looked Child in the face and laughed.

“We both know you only said that about hockey because you knew it would make Declan mad.” Declan Lynch’s intense hatred of hockey was a thing of legend at Aglionby. Gansey pinched the bridge of his nose. He was far too tired for this. “Come on, get up. You’re never going to land a quad axel if you don’t go to practice.”

That got Ronan moving. Ronan see-sawed between showing his anger at his older brother by deliberately not doing the things he was supposed to, and by trying to outdo him at everything. Declan had landed an admittedly under rotated quadruple axel a few weeks before, and Ronan was determined not to let his brother achieve that sport-wide milestone first.

“Well?” Ronan demanded, his practice things bundled in his arms. “What are you standing there for? Let’s move.”

~~~~

By the time the day’s practices were over, what little energy Gansey had had in the morning was gone. His limbs felt heavy and his head throbbed. He’d barely eaten today, which was not a good thing when you burned as many calories as a figure skater did, but in his defense he was the sort of exhausted where you felt nauseous, and it was hard to eat when you felt like you were going to throw up.

After practice was over--Aglionby had a combination of small group and individual lessons, today was a group lesson--Gansey sat on the bleachers while the others filed out. He drank some water and tried to force down a protein bar so he wouldn’t pass out during the next phase of his day. He wished his day was over; he would have liked to be able to go back to his dorm and try to nap until dinner. He wished he could sleep.

“What are you doing sitting here all forlorn?” Ronan asked throwing himself down next to Gansey with such force the bleachers clanged. “You even still have your skates on. Come on, everyone else is done showering already.”

“I’m not done yet,” Gansey said. “I still have to meet my new partner.”

Ronan just looked at him.

“I told you about this,” Gansey rolled his eyes. “Don’t tell me you weren’t listening.”

“I didn’t think you’d go through with it!” Ronan burst out. “What do you need a partner for? You’re a fine singles skater!”

“You’re right,” Gansey snapped. His was too exhausted and short-tempered to respond calmly. “I’m a  _ fine _ singles skater, but Helen and I were  _ great _ ice dancers and if there’s a chance I can find something even a little like that again I’ll take it.”

“But-” Ronan was visibly struggling for words and it cooled Gansey’s frustration.

“I’m not going anywhere, Ronan,” he said. “We’re still going to live together and eat together and go on clandestine midnight orange juice runs together. I’m just not going to be training with you anymore.”

“But then I’ll be alone at practice!” Ronan said.

“You won’t be alone, Parrish will be there,” he gestured to the rink where Adam Parrish was still skating, running things over before going to his night job. Most of the boys at Aglionby laughed at Adam behind his back, making fun of his second-hand clothes and his second-hand skates. There was a recurring joke where people would mockingly fail at skills and say that they were “mimicking Parrish.” Adam bore it all with stoic calm and kept right on training. The jokes were wrong, too. Adam was a good skater; Gansey actually thought he might be a great one, but it was hard to tell because Adam went out of his way to never draw attention to himself during group training.

He watched Adam perform a very neat triple axel, then turned back to Ronan only to notice that the other boy was watching Parrish too. Gansey had been catching Ronan looking at Adam a lot recently; he was still trying to figure out what that meant.

He was just wondering what else he could say to reassure Ronan that this wasn’t going to lead to Ronan losing yet another person he cared about when he heard Child calling. “I have to go,” he said heaving himself to his feet. His head pounded. He wanted to sleep. “I’ll see you at dinner.”

“I think I’ll stay,” Ronan said, leaning back against the seat of the row above him. “See this new girl of yours.”

“If you yell something obscene I swear I really will never speak to you again,” Gansey threatened. “And that will be really awkward given that we live together.”

Ronan flipped him off, but his smile was good-natured. “Sure thing, Dick.”

In spite of his own exhaustion, Gansey was smiling slightly as he made his way off the bleachers, stepping carefully because he was still wearing his skates. When he reached the place where skaters entered and left the rink he found Child standing with Colin Greenmantle and Gansey’s parents. He hadn’t realized they were coming, though he wasn’t sure why. They had an Olympic bronze medal in ice dance and definitely knew more about ice dance than Child did. Gansey had let them pick a partner for him because between his own insomnia and taking care of Ronan, he didn’t have the energy for it, so he had no idea what to expect when he climbed down from the bleachers and saw his partner for the first time.

His first impression was that she was much shorter than Helen, but held herself in a confrontational way that made her seem just as tall. She had soft brown skin and dark eyes. Her dark hair was held up with an eclectic collection of brightly-colored clips and was short enough that it was spiky. She was dressed in clothes that looked like she might have made herself. She was pretty in an interesting, arresting sort of way. Gansey found that he wanted to keep looking at her, but that would be weird so he took in the three women standing behind her--all of whom were interesting in less arresting ways--before focusing on his parents. “Hi, Mom. Hi, Dad.”

Family pleasantries were exchanged. Gansey hadn’t seen his parents or Helen since Christmas. He wished Helen was here, but she’d sworn to never set foot in a rink again after quitting, and so far she’d stuck to that vow, which meant she wouldn’t come to Aglionby to visit him. Gansey was trying not to let how much he missed her show.

Once the parental pleasantries were done, Mrs. Gansey motioned the girl forward. “Dick, this is Blue Sargent. Blue, this is my son, Dick.”

“Pleased to meet you,” Gansey said and held his hand out to her. This was awkward; he’d never had to get to know Helen, this was new territory. After a brief pause he decided to add a compliment, “I like your shirt.”

“Thanks,” Blue said. “Yours is hideous.”

Gansey looked down at himself. He was wearing an aquamarine polo shirt that was one of his favorite shirts. Whenever he wasn’t feeling well, whether it be physically or mentally, he always fell back on his favorite shirts, they made some small part of his life was okay.

“Perhaps you two should skate for a few minutes,” Mrs. Gansey said. It was hard to tell if she was rescuing him or had decided this partnership wouldn’t work in the circumference of four sentences and just wanted to get this over with.

“Sure,” said Gansey.

“I need to put my skates on,” Blue said, but she didn’t raise any complaints as she pulled her skates out of her bag and started putting them on. They were doodled all over with a combination of pens and permanent markers. Gansey tried to read some of the words, but she looked up and glared so he looked away quickly.

“Parrish!” Child shouted. “Get off the ice! Practice is over!”

Adam skated over to the wall and got off the ice. He and Blue locked eyes and a moment of what Gansey could only describe as recognition and acknowledgement passed between them. It didn’t necessarily make Gansey jealous, but it was frustrating that Blue had decided she liked Adam in the same amount of time it had taken her to decide she hated Gansey.

Gansey and Blue stepped out onto the ice and began skating around the edge, a couple yards of awkward space between them.

“Dick said not to yell something obscene!” Ronan yelled from the stands. Gansey turned to flip him off and was surprised to see that Adam was watching too, perched on the edge of the bench next to Ronan, looking like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to stay.

“Please, ignore my friend,” Gansey said diplomatically turning back to Blue.

“No problem,  _ Dick _ ,” Blue said with a nasty smile.

“Actually, I go by Gansey,  _ Jane _ ,” he shot back.

“ _ Jane _ !” Blue’s nose and forehead wrinkled. “You can’t just rename people!”

“You didn’t get it?” Gansey asked. She just looked confused and angry. “Dick and Jane? The easy reader book? You know: ‘See Dick run. See Jane run.’ Really? What did you learn to read on?”

“Not that obviously,” Blue huffed. “I can’t believe Mom thought…” Her voice trailed off into near-silent grumblings that Gansey figured he should probably be glad he couldn’t hear. He was starting to get the feeling that this partnership wasn’t going to work. Was this his only chance? Would his parents and Child let him try again with another girl or was he going to be relegated back to singles?

“Are you two just going to keep skating in circles like that?” Greenmantle shouted from the side. “We’re here to see if you can ice dance!”

Blue heaved a resigned sigh. “Well, I guess I’ll show you some dance holds.”

“I know how to ice dance,” Gansey said.

“Oh, yes, just because you had a lesson or two before I got here you suddenly know everything there is to know about ice dance,” Blue rolled her eyes. “I know you’re a petty rich boy who’s mad mommy and daddy and the mean coaches won’t let you keep skating singles, but that doesn’t give you the right to insult the complexity of an entire-”

“Excuse me!” Gansey twisted around and skidded to a stop in front of her. “You mean to tell me that you didn’t so much as Google me before coming here today? I started out ice dancing! I only switched to singles when my sister quit!”

The fact that Blue had not Googled him was blatantly obvious on her face. “And am I expected to believe that you Googled me?”

“Of course I did!” Gansey snapped. “You’re Blue Sargent. You won a number of medals last season. Half the ice dance community lauded you and your partner as ice dancing’s rising stars, and the other half said that you were dragging your partner’s dead weight. The fact that you’re here today implies both points are true.” He wasn’t sure why he said that last part beyond that he was tired and overly frustrated.

“Fine,” Blue lifted her chin, but it was obvious he’d landed a blow. “Let’s dance, then.”

They assumed a dancing position and skated back and forth a couple times. It felt a little strange. Helen had actually been taller than Gansey for a not insignificant portion of their partnership, and even once he’d passed her by, she was by no means short. Blue was short and tiny, but there was a kind of power to the way she skated that Helen had lacked. Also, the sports analysts hadn’t been wrong: she was a very good skater. The tension was also familiar from the last few months Gansey and Helen had skated together. Gansey couldn’t decide if this was just as bad or less soul-crushing because he didn’t actually know Blue Sargent.

He pulled away from Blue to massage his temples. This whole situation was just making his headache worse. He wished he would have thought to take some Advil after practice. He wondered if he should just call this quits now and head back to the dorms before he and Blue got into another argument.

“What?” Blue asked. “Dealing with me giving you a headache?”

“I already had a headache,” Gansey shot back before he can think. “I have insomnia; I haven’t slept in two days.” He jerked back when the words registered. He’d known he had insomnia for years, but he’d never outright admitted it to anyone. The idea that he had admitted it now, to a person who was not only a total stranger but also hated him was unbelievable.

Evidently, Blue was surprised by his admission, because it took her a couple seconds to regain her prickly demeanor. “Well, I’m sure your rich parents can afford to get you pills to fix that,” she said.

“You don’t want to know what happens here if people realize you’re taking medication,” Gansey said, suppressing a shiver at the mere thought. There were rumors going around that Declan Lynch took sleeping pills, and things on that front were nasty enough even though no one could prove it. Gansey didn’t even let himself think about the people who actually had been taking medication.

“You just keep pretending that your life is so horrible,” Blue said, breezily, though her tone was forced enough to suggest she wasn’t quite as nonchalant as she was acting. “It’s not like you have ever faced any real hardship.”

“And why are you here if you’re so against this?” Gansey said. “You obviously hate the mere idea of me, so why did you even agree to meet me?”

Blue took so long to reply that Gansey didn’t think she was going to say anything. Finally she sighed. “Because those sports analysts who were saying that I was carrying my partner were right, okay?” she glared at him, as if daring him to mock her. “I outgrew my partner and I outgrew my mom, Calla and Persephone, and they told me that if I was serious about going to the Olympics I needed to find a new coach and a new partner. Colin Greenmantle is one of the best ice dancing coaches in the country.”

Personally, Gansey thought Greenmantle was a prat, but it was also undeniable that he was a prat who was a very accomplished ice dancer; training with him was the sort of thing that could make your career. Personally Gansey thought there wasn’t a better coach than Malory--the coach that had trained him and Helen--but Malory had gone into retirement when Helen had quit and Gansey wasn’t sure if the man would consider returning for anyone.

“Okay,” Gansey said to Blue. “Then if you want to train with Greenmantle then that means you have to put up with me, doesn’t it?”

“Of course it does,” Blue sniffed. “But I didn’t expect you to be so…” she struggled for a word. “ _ Aglionby _ .”

Privately, Gansey suspected that he and Blue were on the same level of eccentricity, but he doubted she’d be any more open to listening to him ramble about Ancient Wales than anyone else he knew. “You’re at Aglionby,” he said instead, “What else did you expect?”

“Nothing,” Blue said, imperious, unyielding and unexpectedly beautiful. “But somehow I’m still disappointed.”

“Well?” Child yelled from the side. “What’s your decision? We don’t have all day?” There was a certain edge to his voice. It was obvious he’d already judged Blue and found her lacking. Gansey tensed at the implication and he felt Blue do the same.

“You know,” Gansey said quietly. He wasn’t sure why he was doing this, but he felt like he had to. Perhaps he felt guilty. Knowing him, that was probably likely. “This partnership doesn’t have to be for forever. We can skate together for a couple months, you can pick up some things from Greenmantle, and then we can part ways. It will give you more time to look for a more suitable partner.” He couldn’t tell if that was a brilliant plan or a really foolish one. He was far too tired for this.

Blue just looked at him, then she turned and skated towards the side. Gansey rubbed at his temples again and followed her. At least it looked like he might have some time to try to take a nap before supper.

“Well?” Child repeated when they stepped off the ice. He eyed Blue with barely concealed distaste.

Gansey forced himself not to say anything. Blue would likely not approve of him making this decision for her.

Blue just looked at Child for a minute, her lips pressed tightly together, then she drew herself up. “It went well,” she said. “I think we should give this a shot.”


End file.
